Pubdate: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 Source: Daily Free Press (Boston U, MA Edu) Copyright: 2006 Back Bay Publishing, Inc. Contact: http://www.dailyfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/796 Author: Chloe Gotsis STUDENTS SUE GOVERNMENT FOR DENYING AID TO DRUG OFFENDERS Students Sue Government For Denying Aid To Drug Offenders Citing civil rights infringements, a student organization is suing the United States Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings for denying financial aid to students who have been convicted of drug misdemeanors. According to the Students for a Sensible Drug Policy v. Spellings lawsuit, the ACLU, which filed the suit on behalf of the SSDP, is accusing Spellings of violating students' rights under the due process clause by "singling out, for denial of financial aid, the category of individuals with a controlled substance conviction." According to the lawsuit, the provision also violates the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment, which prevents multiple punishments for the same offense. The ACLU states in the suit that Spellings and the DOE are unconstitutionally punishing students by revoking their financial aid because of a drug conviction they already received a punishment for in a court of law. "We think it's counter-productive to block access to education students with drug convictions," said Tom Angell, campaigns director of the SSDP. "It's intended to stop drug abuse but it actually endorses drug abuse by kicking students out of school. Murderers and rapists are eligible to receive financial aid while a student caught with one marijuana cigarette is automatically denied." If the court rules in favor of the SSDP, Angell said students who were previously denied financial aid because of drug convictions would be able to reapply. The provision in the HEA has been criticized by approximately 200 prestigious health and education organizations such as the American Public Health Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Bar Association and the Association for Addiction Professionals, the ACLU said in a press release. The lawsuit also states that the provision unfairly targets racial minority groups such as African Americans, who account for 62 percent of those drug convictions. According to Boston University spokesman Colin Riley, BU has not had any students lose their financial aid because of drug convictions. "The university's policy is to comply with the federal law, " Riley said. Angell estimated the lawsuit would not be heard in court for at least three months. The ACLU filed the class-action suit on March 22 on behalf of the SSDP, a student organization working towards creating an alternative solution to the U.S. drug abuse problems. The SSDP is asking the Supreme Court to repeal a provision of the Higher Education Act that denied aid to students on the basis drug convictions, according to a March 22 ACLU press release. The law currently denies federal aid to 35,000 students a year nationwide because of drug convictions, according to a March 22 article in The New York Times. The HEA was created more than forty years ago in an effort to distribute higher education aid to students on a need-basis. In 2000, the HEA instituted a mandate for federal judges to automatically deny federal aid to students with drug convictions. Before the 2000 provision, judges had the option to deny federal aid based on drug convictions, but they chose not to in 99.8 percent of the cases, according to the ACLU press release. The SSDP filed the lawsuit to represent 200,000 students who have lost their aid due to drug convictions since 1998, the Times reported.